Star Battle Techniques

Seven techniques solve every Star Battle on PeerPuzzles. Neighbours and finished lines and regions do the steady work; confined and squeezed regions and no room find the openings; every arrangement and what-if take over on two-star grids. Each page shows its technique on the same two-star 8×8 from the game, at the moment it’s first needed, so you can follow one solve from page to page.

Hard level 34, the 8×8 every technique page follows. It takes 44 steps and needs all seven techniques.

How many of the game’s levels need each one, out of 50 in each track:

Technique	Easy 6×6, 1 star	Medium 8×8, 1 star	Hard 8×8, 2 stars
Neighbours	50	50	50
Finished lines and regions	50	50	50
Confined regions	48	48	36
No room	39	42	50
Squeezed regions	6	17	31
Every arrangement	0	0	50
What if	0	0	17

“Needs” means the hints, which always use the simplest technique that works, used it at least once. For all seven in one place, with another worked puzzle, see how to solve Star Battle.

Hard level 34, solved.

Guides

Star Battle: Neighbours (Stars Never Touch)The first Star Battle technique: stars never touch, not even at a corner, so all eight squares around a star are empty. With a real example.
Star Battle: Finished Rows, Columns and RegionsThe Star Battle counting technique: a row, column or region with all its stars is empty everywhere else, and one with exactly enough open squares left is all stars. With a real example.
Star Battle: Confined RegionsWhen a Star Battle region fits inside one row or column, that line's stars are in the region, so the rest of the line is empty. And the other way round. With a real example.
Star Battle: No RoomA Star Battle square whose star would leave some row, column or region with no room for its stars is empty. How to spot it, with a real example.
Star Battle: Squeezed RegionsWhen two Star Battle regions fit inside two rows (or columns), they take all of those rows' stars, so everything else in the rows is empty. With a real example.
Star Battle: Every ArrangementList every way a Star Battle row, column or region can hold its stars without touching; whatever every way rules out is empty. The key two-star technique, with a real example.
Star Battle: What If? Follow a Choice to a ContradictionWhen no simpler Star Battle technique works, suppose a square holds a star, follow what it forces, and see whether a rule breaks. With a real example.